[MUSIC] Good day, my name is Dennis Haww, I'm a professor of sports psychology at the Institute of Sports Sciences of the University of Lausanne. I work specifically on psychology and doping. This is research work I've been carrying out for about 10 years. And these researchers have, or have had some practical English because for a number of years, before arriving here in Lausanne, I was the president of the association that managed the French national anti-doping phone help service. >> Okay, Dennis, we're going to introduce this discussion. Could you tell us perhaps how psychology documents issues of doping in sports? >> While you say that the issues of doping are something that researchers have focused on and in general sports psychology for about 25 years. So there has been a lot of knowledge that has been generated and paradoxically it is not very well known. All of this information is not widely disseminated I should say. Now there are probably numerous reasons for this. >> Well when you mean it's not widely disseminated or used you're talking about About sports. >> In the sports environment, yes. And perhaps when you think about interactions with other scientific approaches. I can't give you all the reasons, but I think that we could, perhaps, mention a few important phenomena about this. First of all, the idea that doping is mainly a medical issue. And the interests were focused on the effects of the substances on the body. The body is a tool and we forget that the body without the psyche isn't a human body, and perhaps also because the definition of doping that we use is the definition of the world anti doping agency, in other words, it is closer to the violation of a rule. It's associated with the violation of a rule and so as a result the psychological portrait of a, someone who uses doping is immediate, it's a cheater. A cheater vis a vis the standard or the rule. Perhaps somebody who is also a calculating sort of person who knows how to circumvent the rules or how to game the rules and perhaps also it is someone who has no morals, who can use these substances in order to reach their target or goal, to be able to win. Well, I think that the portraits that one heard in the media about Marion Jones and Armstrong are in that category. And then after that we get the feeling that that is sufficient. We feel like that is enough to define the portrait of someone who dopes. But research and psychology shows that it's much more complex than this. That there are all sorts of subtleties and nuances that have to be a part of the picture. So I think that psychology provides detailed information about the typical profiles. It also contributes detailed knowledge of the mental mechanisms. The psychic development associated with the using of substances. And it also provides information about the vulnerable situation that the athletes might be in. And then it gives us a guide, relatively accurate, about the interactions between individuals and the substances, at the various stages and various ages of a sports career. Perhaps I could add linked with what I said in the beginning, perhaps I could add that research in the psychology of doping allows us to document and develop a series of strategies supporting the idea of prevention, which is based on the understanding of these psychological mechanisms. >> But when you talk about the psychological profile of athletes who use doping, could you tell us a little bit more about that? Are you talking about the characteristics of these profiles? Can you tell us a bit about those characteristics? >> Well on the idea of the profiles, there are two approaches. One is psychology of the personality. And then there is a psychopathological approach which is centered on the image of the body. Now research in the area of personality have been carried out mainly using bodybuilders, but there is other research. Perhaps I could begin with the one that was done on bodybuilders because it's the easiest one to do because they are ready to say that they've taken doping substances, and this research is conventional. They compare users of anabolic steroids with people who do not use these substances. And these profiles then, which have been identified show, for example, that the users of steroids have a rather higher level of pathological narcissism. In other words, an inability to maintain a positive feeling of self, so it's a higher pathological narcissism than those who do not use drugs, and on the other hand, they have a low level of empathy. In other words, they're not able to imagine what others feel or understanding what others think about them, that's what's behind the idea. Now other studies have come up with other psychological characteristics. In particular, concerns about the body and the shape of the body. We're talking about the weight, the volume, body shape. And some research has shown that these athletes, these bodybuilders, specifically, are more perfectionists. But in an obsessive way so it's an obsessive perfectionism. Now other research shows that these body builders tend to be more depressed. They have anxieties. So basically these are people who are in trouble, basically and focus on themselves. Now research has been carried out in other sports disciplines in particular, young American football players when I say young players I'm talking about university students, they're not professional but it's one stage below the professional level. Now that research is interesting because they tried to compare those who be inclined to use doping substances who would accept to use anabolic steroids or those were taking some compared with those who said, I don't want to take any, I refuse to take any. It's interesting to note that there were many things that were similar between the two groups. First of all, no difference in terms of financial status, no difference in terms of academic results, or the information about their weight and height. Also no difference in terms of their understanding of the deleterious or negative effects of these steroids on their health. Nor was there any difference about the understanding of training methods to arrive at a certain performance level of the kind of food they should be eating. The diet, and so on. However, there were differences, and those differences were specifically the following, they were more inclined to use alcohol and cannabis and they were more aggressive and more impulsive at the same time to use the anabolic steroids. And they had an aptitude which was sort of based on gain at any cost. This is what we mentioned earlier, I think. And then, there were two >> Key elements in the psychological profiles and portraits in spite of their metaphysical characteristics, they were less satisfied with their body image. And it was more difficult for them, some were given measured. It was more difficult to them to refuse an offer of steroid use. Now other research was carried out, this time using other substances and they were connected to different personality profiles. One of them is very well-established in substances and that is the one, which is the thrill seeking. Seeking of thrills and there we consider that those who have that sort of personality tend to move tend to go in the direction or are interested in thrilling sports. And they are predisposed to use steroids, for example, in performance enhancement substances, but also stimulant psychoactives. But we're not talking about American football here, are we? No, no we're talking about other sports. We're talking about sports that involve thrills, such as skydiving, for example, or extreme sports. And it's interesting, I think, because the spectrum is becoming wider in this profile and we're not talking only about steroids and body builders, it's been broadened. So what's interesting I think about these psychoactive substances is that not only these athletes interested in the sports that cause this sensation, these thrills, but they're more prone to associate them with the use of psychoactive substances and they're also more prone to use psychoactive substances when they stop practicing those sports. So there's sort of an association mechanism between these various sports, which are consistent with personality. So, they stop the sport now the words. >> [FOREIGN] >> But they continue to use the same substances. Well, we can talk about this all the research shows that there is change also in the consumption or use patterns, but there is a link, because the idea is to seek thrills. Because the substances make it possible to have greater thrills and to have these thrills when you cannot get them or obtain them through the sports, but these substances are going to increase the feeling in the body. Yes, it will enhance the feeling. The feeling that you want is losing control, which are actually sought by these people in their sports. >> [FOREIGN] >> Finally, these on this research in the psychology of a personality. We have also identified hyper ADHD, in other words and this makes it possible to the substances help them to focus better when they have this ADHD. So, all of these profiles. >> [FOREIGN] >> Predispose an individual to carryout certain practices and to use certain substances. That's about research on the personality, but there's another category of research, which I mentioned earlier, which we characterize as psycho pathology. Now that brings us to completely a different theoretical approach a different postulates, as well. Now here, the idea is to say that these person's that are using substances are in, I'm going to use a usual word, they are in unconscious fantasmatic body image. So basically, it's image or perception of the body that fuels this. We shouldn't understand this in the common sense, the primary reflection or image of one's body. Briefly, if I pick up the theoretical postulates that support this. It's to say that a child, for example, will experience for the first time a mirror and we'll see a self-unity. There will be an image that the child will see in the mirror, it's the mirror image. And this mirror image is a reflection of the child as a unit and as the child develops, the child will note that there is a discrepancy between this image he or she had of himself. And all of these sensations, emotions that will be experienced during the development of the child. And then all of a sudden, the image will not be a unity. There is going to be this discrepancy between this image of him or herself and what he perceives about himself, and what others tell him or her about. So, what we're going to see is that the subject is going to try to maintain the identity and this image. So, there's a conflict between the being and the appearing. So, what is interesting is when we think about these conflicts between being and appearing. I think we can say that there are some periods in one's life when these conflicts affect the individuals more certainly. We've seen, for example, in the self-help phone calls that I talked about earlier. We see some typical pathological psychological profiles that are linked to this sort of tension in the body images. For example, in adolescents. We could say, here that the tension can exist. For example, when adolescents call each other things like Fatso, skeleton, loser. All of these names associated with the identity, which collide with this identity image of an individual, this unconscious identity that the individual has. And this collision might sometimes creates muscle strengthening, strengthening of the muscles. And these practices, which in fact are strengthening the identity and they are associated with use of substances, because they maximize the strengthening of the muscles. So the armor plating of the body, if you will contributes to work against the identity difficulties and the artifacts of puberty, adolescents, for example, have urges and they are going to have difficulties. Some more, some less and we've identified several strategies who react to these urges. The first category is control. Control of the body, control of the image as an example here of young people who go and who sculpt their body in order better to control it. If they control their body better, they control their activity better. If they get involved in some body building, but when they look at themselves in the mirror, for example, they're giving a solid structure to their body. They're solidifying the their identities and then there's another way of facing down this tension or dealing with this tension and that is one that involves exhausting the body, going beyond the limits of the body. Always trying to go one step further without any limits in terms of what one can do with the body. And there, this is very, very rigorous training, increasing number of hours of training and also the use of some substances that are associated with this. Now, we know that adolescents from a pathological point of view suffer from body dismorphic disorder as I mentioned earlier. The too skinny, the too fat, the too small. And this sort of tension, sort of stress can lead to substances to cut down the Adonis complex describe by [FOREIGN] >> Which is a muscular dysmorphic disorder, affects adolescents, but adults later in sports. Especially those who go to fitness places to sculpt their bodies as they seek self-embellishment. But this leads to straining and stress. Doping but because they're adolescents when there are pathologies such as anorexia for example. Is this similar it's a similar mechanism. Yes indeed they're comparable because they are based on this image of the body. And to conclude on this cycle pathological part, this image of the body, in fact, traps the individual. It traps the individual in a sort of a narcissistic cage, and they always want to go further, to do more. And they're trapped in this image of their body, as was described by Schilder this sociological dimension which reaches back to the emotions and all of the baggage that has been accumulated since the childhood of an individual. What we see is that these profiles can vary and that a significant usage of substances is possible for different people. Even in some cases can be trivialized. And these athletes, are they taking risks? Well, they are taking risks, objectively, but as psychology looked at the risk, examine the risks that they're taking. Yes, mainly about the risk of addiction. What it means is that there's a health risk, obviously, that's well established, well known, sometimes controversial as well. But psychology has looked at how the individuals could retain control over their bodies. We have tried to advance research on this principle of addiction and were looking for the neuronal circuits that through usage or a certain practice associate with a certain satisfaction or positive feedback in such a way that after a certain amount of time, the urge exceeds the control of the individual and they are then in a situation where they are addicted. So on this approach, some research has indicated that there is a risk of addiction in the use of certain substances. Even though it's controversial. But there is this risk for anabolic steroids, but also for psychoactive substances, which are more conventional. And everyone seems to agree more or less on this. It's more surprising for anabolic steroids. And there's some discussions there. Copeland, for example, are a group of 100 body builders identified only 23% who were addicted. So. Other, Other states a minority and more research needs to be done here in this area. But generally, we believe that there are three types of relationships between the use of a substance and addiction. The first one, which is based on the addictive potential of certain substances. I mentioned this earlier already, obviously the amphetamines, cocaine, these have a potential, an addiction potential which is stronger than others. But there are different stages or classifications. That's the first one. The second relationship, which has been more closely examined, is vulnerability associated with intense sports. Because it shows the principle of this reasoning is to involve saying that sports is something training leads to stress, there's stress on the body, the stress on the body is physiological but is also psychological stress, or tension and it generates and adaptation in the body. And the research shows that when you generate the sort of stress in young children, and if you do it in a very intense way, you create an addiction circuit that links this adaptation to stress to pleasure feedback which means that the subject is in a situation all of a sudden when the stress is gone, there is something missing. There's something lacking and there you have an addiction which is created. An addiction to stress, so we are creating vulnerability. And so, early intense training has generated vulnerability because we note when these athletes are not in a situation where they feel these stress levels they resort to substances which allows them to simulate. Well, for example, when they stop their careers you have some athletes who use a substance known as Polbeng, the Belgian mixture or stimulants or alcohol. There's a whole range of substances that can be used that would respond to this need for stimulation. And what's interesting here is that the substance allows the individuals, especially at the end of their sports career to continue to be what he or she was. Somebody who is involved, who is stressed all the time, the training stress. And the substance becomes a substitute so that the person doesn't die actually. So taking risks during a career leads to continuing this risk taking afterwards. That's right and it's inherent to intense sports and it also happens when it's very early intensive sports or training because there there is a link or internalization of this practice and it becomes almost automatic, with fewer resources to be able to assimilate it and face it and take some distance. Vis a vis some of the things and as a result, the individual becomes vulnerable. There is generation of vulnerability which we tend to think that the, using substances after a career ends is something that was established or built during the career. In other words, the stress creates the addiction but there is a study by Lowenstein which is very interesting. It was on follow-up of athletes who were addicted to substances after they created shows that those who were addicted, of those, only 16% actually were using substances were during their careers as athletes. That's what they said. So this doesn't allow us to think that there is a drift or a slippage from drug assistance to drug addiction. Finally, in sports and in drug abuse, there is a risk that we have no control over. And that is the risks of sports. Sports are talking about high level sports where there are, and I think it's safe to say that the contact with doping is also a contact with unpredictable things. And these unpredictable things are especially associated with the fact that in these intense sports. High level sports. They become extremely involved, so there is a wealth of circumstances which all come together. In fact that it is getting difficult to anticipate the deleterious effects of this. Thank you Denny. [MUSIC]
